Apple answers critics, tweaks iBooks Author EULA

Apple ships a new product and there’s an uproar. The fans rejoice, seeing all that is good, while the haters, well… Here we are again and Cupertino’s latest opus, or at least the first movement thereof, has caused quite a still. Though the hand ringers are unlikely to go silent, there isn’t much left to complain about after today.

Words. It’s not what you say, but how you say it.

If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Work”), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.”

That’s the part of the iBooks Author 1.0 EULA that ticked some people off and set off a firestorm — or tempest in a teapot if you prefer — of protest about Apple’s digital textbook initiative.

Now, according to Ars Technica, Apple has eased if not erased the objection by rewording the iBooks Author 1.0.1 EULA:

If you want to charge a fee for a work that includes files in the .ibooks format generated using iBooks Author, you may only sell or distribute such work through Apple, and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple. This restriction does not apply to the content of such works when distributed in a form that does not include files in the .ibooks format.

Given that .ibooks documents, books, textbooks, etc. can only be displayed in iBooks, 2.0 which in turn only runs on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, nothing’s changed but the wording of the legalese. That is, authors owned their work before the change and continue to own their work after.

I fully expect the hand ringers to raise a chorus of “But what about.” Whatever.

Let’s get back to changing the world…

What’s your take?

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•